September 03, 2005

Online Copywriting

One of the most powerful persuasive forces you have when creating your online customer experience is – copy.Women are communicators; their brains are specifically wired for verbal skills.Women are all about relationships – you build those relationships through communication. One of the most powerful communication vehicles is –words. That's why online copywriting is so important.

More and more successful companies are recognizing the power of online copywriting.When they create their websites, they often come to me asking “What makes a good online copywriter?How will I know when I find one?”

I’ve never really had a good answer.So I put the question to the most powerful and somewhat large heads I could gather together:Jeff Eisenberg, Bryan Eisenberg and Lisa Davis.What resulted are the 12 qualities of a good online copywriter.

Good online copywriters are:

Creative – you must be able to examine things from multiple and unusual perspectives

Intelligent – you must be able to comprehend new subjects quickly and thoroughly

Empathizers – you must be able to relate to and understand different audiences, especially of they are different from yourself

Well- Read – the more you read different styles and works, the more you will be able to learn from others and expand your own repertoire

Good Listeners – the best way to learn about a subject or an audience is to really listen.

Organized – you must be able to follow directions, manage multiple responsibilities, and be detail oriented.

Deadline Oriented – you must have discipline.You have to get it done on time.Period.No exceptions. Be consistently late and be out of work.

Client Managers – that’s right – it’s often your job to manage the client, not the other way around.You must manage their expectations and tell them when they’re wrong.They may not always listen, but if you don’t speak up – and the copy doesn’t work – they’re going to blame you.

Simple Communicators – you must be able to write as simply as possible, taking complex and technical subject matter and explaining it in clear concise copy.

Consistent – you must be able to sustain a consistent voice and personality throughout the copy.

Humble – you need to be able to separate out your ego from your work.You can not fall in love with your own words. You must be able to edit and cut your copy without emotional connection.

Web Savvy – the web is a different medium than any other.It is NOT the same as print or direct marketing.You must understand hyperlinks, persuasive momentum, and writing for search engines just for starters.

There is one more important bonus skill we’ll throw in:

They write!The best copywriters are themselves writers who pursue their love for writing beyond the confines of their business applications.

All else being equal, an online copywriter can make or break your site.A less than optimal design with good copy will outperform a beautiful design with bad copy every time.

If you’re a business owner – please, please, please – spend the money to hire a talented online copywriter.If you are an online copywriter, do everything you can to learn the 12 skills of a good online copywriter.

If you’re interested – check out Future Now’s Persuasive Online Copywriting seminartaught by the wonderfully talented Lisa Davis (she’s great to listen to for her wisdom but also her beautiful accent) and yours truly, Holly Buchanan.We’ll answer questions like – How can you understand your audience?How can you write for different personality types?How is writing for the web different than writing for any other medium?How can you write for search engines?How can you write persuasive copy?How can you create relationships through your copy?Is long or short copy better?How do you deal with clients with unrealistic expectations?

My problem with writing my blog right now is I feel like my pieces are coming out too professional? I want to keep them fun and to have my own voice but it's a restaurant review blog and I have so much content I want to get out I feel like they're dragging on...I don't want it to be boring, but I want to convey my feelings on the food to the reader.

The problem with all that nekwroting described in the post above for me anyway is that I'm so busy I don't have time to even do the nekwroting let alone follow up any leads. That's the problem being a solo operator: the gap between not enough work & not enough time is really narrow. Happy to be busy though, in these theoretically recessive times!

High Quality are must these days for promotion of your website on search engine. But finding good copywriter is more difficult task than we can imagine. There are lot of writer claim them to be best copy writer but finding the write one from them having all above mention characteristic are difficult